Daniela Ruah Officially Checks In

We asked Daniela Ruah, twenty-seven, Portuguese-American star of NCIS: Los Angeles and the upcoming movie Red Tails, to call us over the course of three days, whenever she'd like. And she did. Which was nice of her.

DANIELA RUAH: You're gonna end up being like my boyfriend. "Hey, babe. I just woke up. What are you gonna do today?" "Babe, I'm going to bed now."

ESQUIRE:It's the obligations of a relationship without any of the benefits.

DR: Perfect.

ESQ:How was Portugal?

DR: The country is not doing well economically. People are upset and angry. You can feel it on the street. You can tell in the way they drive. We're talking about one of the richest histories. We had an unbelievable empire, and so many maritime discoveries, and how is it that we are now reduced to this? But I still love the country.

Ari Michelson

ESQ:Do you get recognized there?

DR: Occasionally. I started working on telenovelas there when I was sixteen, so people know me. But I'm not the "face of Portugal."

ESQ:It's either you or Joaquim de Almeida [Portuguese actor who played that bad guy in that movie].

DR: I think there are a couple of other actors that have Portuguese ancestry, but not many. I'll be walking, and some kid will run right in front of me, look at my face, say "Yeah, it's her!" and then run away. I had a four-year-old kid run up to me and wrap his arms around my neck once, and I melted.

ESQ: Lucky kid. Why don't you have an accent?

DR: I was born here in the States. I moved to Portugal when I was five. And then my parents put me in an English school. There's this accent that I think everybody has when they grow up going to an international school. It's a mix of not quite English, not quite American. When I moved to L. A., it just went completely American.

Ari Michelson

ESQ: You play an Italian in Red Tails. Did you have to learn to speak with your hands?

DR: Portuguese do that. We're very aggressive speakers. I remember when I was with one of my roommates in New York — and she's Portuguese, too — and we were in an Apple store talking about a computer in Portuguese. Some guy comes up to us and goes, "Hey, hey! Peace, peace! Stop arguing." It's not arguing. This is really just how we talk.

ESQ: You make the Portuguese sound like a pretty aggressive people, in general.

DR: We're Latin. High-energy, Mediterranean. That's our culture. We speak loud. And we speak with our hands, but we're not aggressive like warwise. A Portuguese is not going to punch you for no reason.

ESQ: But might embrace you for no reason.

DR: Exactly.

Friday, 2:15 a.m. to 2:25 a.m.

Ari Michelson

ESQ:It's probably like 3:15 where you are. You said you're not really a party animal.

DR: It's 2:15 here. I've been up talking to a friend. Now it's just me and the dog.

ESQ:Does the dog sleep on the bed?

DR: No dogs on the bed or on the sofas.

ESQ: Because of dog hair, or you don't want her to feel entitled?

DR: My bed's a clean place... Okay, I'm calling you at three in the morning and I'm talking about my bed. Oh, God. Have a good night.

Saturday, 10:05 a.m. to 10:25 a.m.

ESQ: So, your eye. I'm not going to call it a condition, because it's actually kind of alluring.

DR: It happened when I was a kid. You know how Barbies have the little plastic hands? One of them stuck in my eye when I was sleeping.

ESQ:So it's a scar, basically.

DR: No, I can't stay serious. That's not true at all. It's a birthmark called nevus of Ota. It covers the whole white of my eye and darkens it. The square of the eye, the white part, is completely dark on my right eye, not just the iris. It's very common in Asian people but quite rare in Caucasians. It doesn't affect my vision or anything like that.

Ari Michelson

ESQ:Wait, I'm looking at a picture of you, and I can clearly see that you have a white in your right eye.

DR: Photoshop. It drives me crazy. This is my eye, my little trademark. Not long ago, I started adding a little smiley face when I sign an autograph, and one of the eyes is darker.

ESQ: Has it affected your career at all?

DR: It starts the conversation, if anything. But I don't think it's ever gotten me a job or lost me a job. When we're shooting, sometimes they need to light my eye in a slightly different way. Otherwise, it looks like there's a big shadow over it. But that's pretty much it.

Sunday, 1:15 a.m. to 1:40 a.m.

DR: Aw, this is our last call!

Ari Michelson

ESQ:I was watching the tape of your victory dance on the Portuguese equivalent of Dancing with the Stars —

DR: Awful! I was so damn skinny at that point in my life. It wasn't on purpose — it was just the way I was and I hate it. It's so flimsy when I move my arms around. I was always such a skinny kid, so I kind of grew up with an "I hate skinny" mentality.

ESQ:I was going to ask what happened with your skirt.

DR: I went down for my partner to spin me on the floor — I was on my tiptoes — and then when I put my heels back down to stand up, I stepped on the skirt. That's why it fell down.

ESQ:Are you looking forward to the photo shoot?

DR: I'm actually expecting to have a lot of fun and to take a few more risks than usual. There are a few limitations, though. We're not doing anything where you can see through the clothing. I'm generally very reserved with this stuff, but you know what, I'm a woman and I enjoy feeling sexy once in a while and why not have a little fun?

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